Archive for April, 2010

Belgians’ guilt for being White Men

Here we go again with more political correctness on race. The famous Tintin, Belgian artist Herge’s most loved adventurer, is being taken to court for having 19th century attitudes in the 21st century.

“This book contains unacceptable racist and xenophobic words which are designed to convey the idea that the black man is inferior,” Maitre Papis Tshimpangila, Mbutu Mondondo’s lawyer, told The Times.

The court was asked to study a series of scenes in which Congolese villagers fight over a straw hat, wonder how to add two and two or express admiration for the superior intelligence of their white rulers.”

What do people imagine that encounters with Africans were like one hundred years ago? That Belgians were arguably the most appalling colonists in Africa is well known, but what about the indescribable anarchy that exists today in the Congo, where millions have been raped and slaughtered in the most barbaric way.

It reminds me of all those period films where smoking is now disallowed, or the famous Beatle’s Abby Road album which has had a cigarette erased from one of the Fab Four’s hand. What about all those many documentaries on Hitler? Do they censor the appalling attitudes expressed by the Nazis towards Jews?